Mask or Menace | MODERATORS (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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etcelsior2016-10-25 02:36 pm
maskormods) wrote in etcelsior2016-10-25 02:36 pm
Entry tags:
Lies a place that few have seen.
TEST DRIVE MEME
Considering apping into MASK OR MENACE? Want to dip your toes into the setting and get a feel of whether your character will fit into it? Or maybe you're just cruising and want to play around? Then you've come to the right place!
Pick any of the following scenarios below or feel free to make up your own, but don't be afraid to throw yourself at someone else's thread, either!
And remember there's only one rule in Test Drive Meme Club: have fun!01. The city of Heropa is what one might expect from a small, bright and cheery place, where locals are friendly enough and local shop owners might offer a free drink to welcome you to their fair city. Some of the locals might thank you for always lending your service to the nation, while others might not say anything -- but if you have something nasty to say, better not say anything at all, right? This month has been a rocky one, and locals are beginning to eye imPorts with renewed scrutiny; if people like them can get superpowers, are imPorts really that special, after all? Some people usher their children away from anyone clearly not 'from around here,' while other natives may be brave enough to directly approach obvious imPorts and ask their thoughts on the war with Russia and what the imPort ambassadors are planning to do about it.
ImPorts are a divisive issues, even in pretty Heropa.
02. De Chima, Virginia, is a large city with a healthy economy, and though it's quieter, there are just as many citizens awed at your very presence. Look at you! Organic wonder! Science and technology are the lifeblood of this city, so you're likely to come across a good many locals taking your picture with the newest of devices. The imPort craze is at an all-time high, and you may find yourself cornered by overzealous imPort fans, media wannabes and opportunists alike, shoving cameras in your face.
Their questions are likely to be fairly mundane, however; get ready for an interview about your taste in romantic partners, personal underwear choices, favourite foods, and more!
Also, as the Halloween craze is reaching a fevered pitched, more and more children are running around in costumes of their favorite imPorts! Do you recognize any of these masks? Perhaps one of these costumes mimics YOU!?
...
Isn't that kinda creepy?
03. Maurtia Falls, Pennsylvania is populated by a whole lot of people who are having awfully bad days. With the emergence of locals with superpowers, many seem to have latched onto their new supercharged identities with an incredible amount of gusto. As your character walks down the street, they may find themselves accosted by a large man in his mid-20s, dressed in an ill-fitting spandex suit of orange and yellow. As he thrusts his finger into an imPort's face, the spandex rides up, turning into more of a crop-top, which he duly tugs back down before shouting, "You're not the special ones anymore, imPorts! Feel the wrath of Heartburn!"
Stupid name aside, he does seem to have superpowers as he breathes a large plume of fire. His aim still isn't great, though; it could hit the imPort in question, or be sent in the direction of a nearby local, or even a particularly flammable building.
What will you do, Hero?
04. Nonah, North Carolina, is the liveliest of all cities; loud, busy and there's some kind of energy in the air that gets everyone buzzing with excitement. This fine day, pumpkin spice seems to be in style, to the point at which you happen to be crashing an open pumpkin spice festival. From drinks to sweet treats to some other things that really, really shouldn't be pumpkin spice flavoured (pumpkin spice flavoured vodka, anyone? It tastes like regret!), everyone seems to be in the mood for the upcoming season.
Taste test a few samples and take in the hustle and bustle of the city, everyone! And hey, if just gorging yourself isn't enough, why not try your hand at the pumpkin carving contest going on? The competition is fierce!
no subject
If you don't mind, with further investigation, I may be able to find a way to help. Not a permanent solution — [ yet, since the truth of any permanent solution would be taking his arm, and it's not so unstable as to require that to save his life as far as Solas knows at this point ] — but one that might help with the ache.
[ As for the literature, he lifts his cup of coffee and stares down into it, glad for the caffeine and left undecided on the particulars of the flavour. ] I'm certain there will be enough material I should be studying to forego whatever nonsense this place has dreamed into being. [ He looks up again, setting down the cup untouched. ] Though as it is, yes, they were. Curious for any of these things to have been the same.
[ For all that he knew so very well how it'd been nothing more than chance selecting who lived in all the events of that day. What could have changed most easily for any of them were the hands that had picked up his orb. Whatever events followed... how similar were they? There were only so many years that passed over the course of the Inquisition's pursuit of Corypheus and the subsequent meeting called at the Winter Palace calling for its dissolution or reallocation. To have both Dorian and Cullen from that era... at what point had the scales tipped into his confession by the Eluvian? What if they never had? It was difficult to know. ]
It would seem likely. Corypheus's defeat is some two years in my own past.
[ Less settling is hearing that there's at least three different potentials they all come from. If Solas himself shares none of them, it's a cruel reminder of just how often, and how consistently, he's failed. There's a part of him even now that wonders if he might not be proven wrong; if he might not be able to truly see another path than the one he's elected to walk alone.
Chances are there isn't, and he's learning now of at least three whole times he's failed catastrophically. Three whole chances to try and unmake his mistakes. He wishes there hadn't been the need. It breaks his heart, only to leave him hardening it further. ]
no subject
two years. two years, and solas is.. different. there's a weight on him that's almost visible. he feels.. worn, older, and mahanon is a little afraid of what that means. (the armour, the shift in body language, the weight of his glances.) is this what his own solas will be in two years?
he doesn't want to take a breath. he knows it'll shake. ] .. Two years. [ he was right; the air trembles in his lungs for a moment, two, and he sighs it back out. ] I have a lot to catch up on. [ he's not sure he wants to know. not right now, anyway. what's the point, when they're in another world entirely? ] But then.. who knows? We've already proven that time isn't set in stone. [ it could be different, whatever happens to all of them.
(solas is still.. his friend.) ] You should come to dinner once you get settled in. I'll show you all the appliances, unless you've already sorted them out. [ he curls fingers at his nape, pale eyes sliding away briefly, glancing out toward the passersby. ] I live in Maurtia Falls here. .. It's not exactly the safest city, I suppose, but I'm left pretty much alone, and no one cares that I'm a knife-ear.
no subject
Arrogance, he supposes, but that had been part and parcel of his mistake with Corypheus in the first place. Back in a time before he'd allowed himself to envision any of the people around him as being truly real. ]
There may be consistencies... some form of consensus or another, but you have the right of it. If nothing else, we've seen how mutable the future is, to one from a different past.
[ Hadn't that also been the trouble? In being told of the Inquisitor and Dorian's time in a world that had fallen to Corypheus, and what that cost had entailed. Time was a construct; potential was something to capitalize on or seize, but nothing guaranteed. He leans back, a subtle shift as he breathes out through his nose. He does and doesn't know this man, but he has that sense of friendship almost being there; strong enough that the offer, come to dinner, strikes a painful chord in what's left of his unmasked heart. He's shaking his head with a small, small smile. Difficult to say what his position is in this place, other than that of researcher and student by necessity. He highly doubts he can be anything of a friend.
No one deserves that weight, and he doesn't deserve that liberation. Not with the decisions he's been acting on. ]
I haven't had the pleasure of sorting through whichever appliance challenges still await. I've only come through to this place in the last handful of hours.
[ Time marked by the sun's movement, nothing else. The boisterous activity all around has barely slowed. His eyes take in the ebb and flow of people, listening to Mahanon while sorting through so many of the little details he's been given so far. Not enough. He'll have to see to rectifying that lack. ]
The dividing factors here seem to fall along country lines, with those of us from elsewhere being something of an uneasy acceptance. Not so terribly unfamiliar. Not even in how unique understandings or abilities are held in creative contempt and fear until their use has been proven to the powers that be.
[ Politics don't change, no matter the world. Only here, the "gifted" aren't simply those in tune to the ebb and flow of mana. They're artificially generated, or altered, and that is both fascinating and unnerving in uneven measures. Sidestepping most of what's been said in favour of looking at the lens of the world? Intentional, yes, but not ill intentioned. ]